88pathoffroad Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 I've always wanted to swap out the LED's in my third brake light. The LED's inside the stock third brake light are weak and don't match the regular brake lights. I decided to do something about it finally. I took mine off, unscrewed the cover and all, then heated it up in the oven at 200 degrees F. With the help of a razor knife and small flat screwdriver, I was able to separate the lens from the circuit board mounts with the LED's on them. I transplanted some junkyard LED strips from a Montana minivan third brake light and a Chevy Blazer third brake light. The Montana and Blazer lights just have a single strip, whereas the Nissan light has two rows that are narrower...that's why I had to strip two junkyard lights for enough LED's to make one third brake light. My third brake light is now four times brighter than it was, and it matches the regular brake lights perfectly. Have some pics. These are the stock Nissan LED strips. 34 LED's per row, all substandard 1992 issue. Bleh. My digicam doesn't even change f-stop for them. Here are the new LED strips I put together. Note that the camera darkened the rest of the picture noticeably to compensate for the brightness of the LED's. ...and the final product, installed on the Pathy: There are now 32 LED's in the top row and 34 in the bottom row. I had to do it that way because that's how they paired the resistors and LED's in the other LED strips, and I had to cut the strips down to fit. I've never loved my hot glue gun and soldering iron more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pezzy Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 I'd brake for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iLLlegal Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 nice job man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vengeful Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 That's actually pretty cool...I like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted August 17, 2005 Author Share Posted August 17, 2005 Thanks. I've been wanting to do that for a while now. Now when I step on the brakes I can see the glare from the new lights on the back window. Heh. My GF says I need to change the taillight bulbs to LED's too cause they don't match. She said "The top one is so much redder and brighter than the bottom two". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPath88 Posted May 14, 2010 Share Posted May 14, 2010 *Moving this from Pics and Vids to the How-To's* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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